How to Present Data to Your Executive

Business is becoming increasingly complex and data is becoming extremely important in order for companies to be able to stay ahead of the curve; remain current and be competitive. Executives need to make decisions that ensure the success of the entire company.

Conveying data in a meaningful and clear way is not is as easy as it sounds. This presentation will walk you through three ways to present data clearly and provide three tips to find ways to communicate data-based information for your Executive to get the longer view they need to make good business decisions.

Some Executive Assistants are also not comfortable with presenting financial data, yet if you can learn that skill, it will be yet another value-add service that you can provide to your Executive to enable good decision making. This presentation will also give you three ways to present financial information and three tips for giving your Executive the information they need to create success.

Summary: Tell a Story

Understand WHAT you are presenting, it helps you gather the correct information and lay the foundation for the story.

Understand WHY this is important and WHO is going to use this. This creates the emotional and intellectual context to the story and allows people to remember it more clearly.

Understand HOW it needs to be presented for the audience to take in the information and exceed their expectations in terms of creating a clear understanding of the data you presented and what it means.

Keep it SIMPLE! With so much information out there it is easy to collect too much and overwhelm not only yourself, but your Executive. Stick to the story you are telling for one, clear purpose.

I learned about some great features within Microsoft Excel (e.g., PivotTables, Filters, Goal Seek-part of the What-If Scenarios) that allow you to summarize and analyze data from large spreadsheets without having to re-enter the data. Thanks

Just want to comment that when Sue is presenting, it would be look much better for the audience to have Sue taped from an angle similar to Jasmine’s. The angle presented looking upward @ Sue made it awkward and also made the picture behind her tipped…a bit distracting.

Thank you Gette. Yes, I apologize for the angle. I chose that over being back lit by a large picture window. Shadow vs. Angled. Sometimes we just have to manage with what we have. I will make sure I’m in a much better position next time. 🙂 I appreciate your aesthetic attention to detail. Sue

Thanks for sharing this information. I encourage all admins to step out of their comfort zones to learn new skills. It may seem daunting at first, but can prove to be so simple once you take action. At IAAP TEC16 conference last month, I learned about some great features within Microsoft Excel (e.g., PivotTables, Filters, Goal Seek-part of the What-If Scenarios) that allow you to summarize and analyze data from large spreadsheets without having to re-enter the data. The best part is that these features are easy to use and provide powerful results. Once your executive tells you what data is needed, it will be a breeze summarizing it in a PivotTable or chart.

Thanks for the useful tips. I had a meeting earlier today with some peers at another company about how they do training for administrative professionals, with an eye toward building a business case to do the same thing at my company. I know that sharing data like costs, number of people (both admins and execs) who would benefit, etc., will help me demonstrate the need to do the training. Of course, my long-term goal is to get support to bring Office Dynamics/Joan to my company. That may be a ways off, but I’m planting seeds now.

Great blog! Facility with data, financial data and key performance indicators is absolutely a critical skill set for so many reasons.

In my last job, my ability to provide detailed insight into production budgets actually led to a telecommuting opportunity when I moved cross country, and helped to financially facilitate that move.

Also, I love that this blog highlights the idea of telling a story with data; as an artist, I work with a palette of colors on canvas. As a business storyteller, my “colors” are comprised of data sets and information that helps me to describe opportunities, identify problems, and propose solutions on the “canvas” of a proposal or PowerPoint presentation.

Great information! I don’t work with financials directly; but I do need to understand what we’re looking at when going over information with my Executive. Thanks for providing ideas on how to ‘muddle’ through the financial data!

Jasmine and Sue did a great job with this presentation. I don’t work a great deal in the finance side of our company but do keep a budget spreadsheet for our department. This presentation gave me a great idea on how to share our up-to-date budget with my boss without all the specific detail! Thanks,

Great blog and video on how to provide financial data to your executive. If it is something you haven’t done, go on and try, take that BIG step out of your comfort zone. Don’t be afraid to ask your manager or look around you for something your can pull together. Travel Expenses is a good one to create a presentation with. Or I suggest using your vacation trips, or something you have numbers on (i.e. child’s sports or school outings) and use the tips suggested. Need help with PowerPoint or Excel Skills – no worries, just look up free tutorials.